U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,826 to de Rochemont, et al., disclose articles and methods to form oxide ceramic on metal substrates to form laminate, filament and wire metal-ceramic composite structures using liquid aerosol spray techniques. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,323,549 and 6,742,249 to de Rochemont, et al., disclose articles that comprise, and methods to construct, an interconnect structure that electrically contacts a semiconductor chip to a larger system using at least one discrete wire that is embedded in silica ceramic, as well as methods to embed passive components within said interconnect structure. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,707,715 and 6,143,432 to de Rochemont, et al., (the '715 and '432 patents), disclose articles and methods to relieve thermally-induced mechanical stress in metal-ceramic circuit boards and metal-ceramic and ceramic-ceramic composite structures. The contents of each of these references are incorporated herein by reference as if laid out in their entirety.
McMillan et al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,456,945; 5,540,772; 5,614,252; 5,759,923; 5,888,583, hereinafter referred collectively as McMillan et al.) disclose methods and apparatus for disposing liquid precursor films by flowing a mist of liquid metalorganic precursors over a substrate contained within a deposition chamber, where both the substrate and the deposition chamber are held at substantially ambient temperatures. Although this art instructs the use of liquid precursors comprising wet chemistry techniques that include carboxylic acid and alkloxide chemistries to form silicon dioxide and other oxide dielectrics, such as barium strontium titanate (BST), on integrated circuit substrates, the inventors repeatedly advise that heating the deposition chamber and substrate during the deposition process leads to inferior quality films. Under McMillan et al., ambient temperatures must be maintained within the deposition chamber, which may alternatively be held under vacuum or at atmospheric pressure during the deposition process. General ambient temperatures are clearly defined as ranging between −50° C. and 100° C., preferably ranging between 15° C. and 40° C. The initial deposit is a liquid film that is subsequently dried and treated to form a solid oxide layer. Treatment of the liquid film is defined as meaning one or any combination of the following process steps: exposure to vacuum, application of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, electrical poling, drying, heating and annealing. Ultraviolet radiation is applied to the mist during the deposition process to accelerate dissociation of the precursor flowing over the substrate and electrical poling is believed to increase the dwell time of the precursor mist over the substrate. Solvents contained within the liquid film are primarily extracted from the deposit using vacuum techniques. Furthermore, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,923, McMillan et al. only instruct on a need for water-free alkoxide chemistries when depositing silicon dioxide materials, suggesting that silicon carboxylic acid chemistries can be exposed to water-containing chemical species or atmospheric environments having relatively humidity, such as ambient air. Additional prior art that instructs the application of a liquid film to a substrate by means of an aerosol spray, followed by solvent extraction and subsequent treatment is cited by Hayashi et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2002/0092472 A1)
R. Khun et al., “Charcterization of Novel Mono- and Bifacially Active Semi-Transparent Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells”, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 46(10), October 1999, p. 2013-2017, disclose the use of mechanical saws to cut groves into a silicon photovoltaic device to render it semi-transparent for the purpose of developing architectural solar cell devices. Kalkan et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,919,119, and Sager et al, U.S. Pub. No. US/2004/0084080 A1, disclose the use nano-architected (corrugated) surface topologies to increase the electrically active surface area per unit volume of photovoltaic device media. Scher et al, U.S. Pub. No. US/2004/0118404 disclose the use of nano-particle P-N junctions embedded in organic media or assembled within a void existing between two electrodes to form solar cell devices. Nano-particle P-N junction embodiments comprising semiconductor compounds defined as Group II-VI, Group III-V, and Group IV semiconductors are incorporated herein by way of reference.